The true meaning of what Brexit means for Britain's global standing is starkly illustrated in this piece.
It was a few years ago when Cameron was still Prime Minister that this author was discussing how the government had already debased Britain's dignity in its desperation to seek investment from foreign powers.
Brexit simply amplifies this strategy to the nth degree. In its desperation to get free trade deals with countries outside the EU, the government would pay almost any price, would have to do any deal possible; because the alternative, like with the EU, is "no deal", and falling back on to WTO rules.
This is the natural result of the government putting itself in a "diplomatic no-man's-land", by refusing to follow any other existing arrangement between the EU and other countries. As someone else once said, "Hard Brexit" is Britain telling the EU: do what I say or I will shoot myself!
The situation would be laughable were it not so serious. The government's post-Brexit global strategy appears to be to do deals with rogue regimes and dodgy dictators, and when not doing that, its ministers are proposing Brexit Britain as some kind of unilateral free trade area to attract foreign attention.
As pointed out, the idea of effectively turning Britain into a worldwide "bargain basement" would be catastrophic for many sectors of industry and manufacturing. The author elsewhere has made the point that some of the Brexiteers' ideas seem to cross over into the realm of anarchic fantasy. Because these people in government see that trade with the EU is so seamless, they have not the faintest comprehension of the deep complexity involved behind the scenes that makes this seamless world possible. Without creating the complex infrastructure necessary to get through the plethora of EU systems, once Britain left the EU that "deep complexity" would be an almost insurmountable barrier to easily trading with them, as this complexity would confront almost every aspect of the modern economy. It is a pipedream (or dangerous fantasy) to think that Britain would be able to trade freely and easily with the EU while simultaneously wishing to be separate from its systems. The recent example of Catalonia's brief quixotic escapade into "independence" demonstrated how legislators with no idea of the practicalities of their ideas quickly become tragic figures of mockery.
Meanwhile, we have the speeches of the "three stooges" - Boris, David Davis and Liam Fox - to look forward to. What's already clear is that they see Brexit as, at the very least, an instrument to turn Britain into a low-regulation, low-tax economy and potential free trade zone. Put in these terms, it sets up Britain as a "whore to the world": with Britannia's legs metaphorically spread open, inviting all and sundry around the globe to her take advantage of her flaunted assets.
What this feels like is not Britain ran for the benefit of its citizens, but for the benefit of its amoral elite, who are happy to exploit its native population, with rich foreigners invited to a "bargain basement" economy to make the most of the opportunity. In this sense, the Conservative Party seems to treat its governance of Britain as though they were an occupying power rather than fellow natives. When the Normans first took over England, they faced years of opposition and insurgency in the North, resulting in the so-called "harrowing" that left a landscape across that part of England called simply "waste". The Thatcherite agenda of de-industrialisation left a similar, post-modern sort of economic "wasteland" across many towns in the North of England and South Wales, which has never really recovered ever since. All that was left was insecure, poorly-paid employment and a local population in the depths of poverty and the inevitable social malaise of crime, drug and alcohol dependency brought on by a feeling of abandonment. The vision that the Brexiteers offer here is even more apocalyptic to those areas already feeling abandoned after decades of neglect. Either by ignorance or by design, this vision is one that yet further punishes the areas that traditionally voted Labour, with a similar heartless mentality as that of the Normans towards the Anglo-Saxon miscreants of yesteryear.
The completion of Britain's "de-industrialisation" agenda seems to be being pursued by some sections of the Brexiteers, so that when "hard Brexit" is achieved, Britain's final state will be an economy ran on banking, retail and services alone, with manufacturing, industry and farming decimated, and everything else being imported. It is almost as though some advocates of "hard Brexit" wish to take Britain back to an pre-industrial economy, like that of the middle of the 18th century, albeit with cosmetic modern structures. The author is reminded of how the modern Gulf States are an example of medieval societies ran with 21st century technology. Is this the kind of vision the Brexiteers have for Britain in the near future?
The only parts of the economy that the rich elite are interested in are the ones where they can make a quick profit. After all, this is how the property bubble has expanded in London. As they see it, there is no future in manufacturing, as this is all done in China. The government is only useful in the short-term sense that it has assets that they can sell off to foreign investors. The "skilled economy" is only useful in the narrow sense that they see from their own background. This explains why there is so little time spent on investment or training in large parts of business and government. If it's cheaper to get a foreign company to do it, then why bother with the time spent training up a native? This is why the growth in employment is largely in the unskilled sectors, and will continue in this trend as long as the economy continues down the same self-destructive path. The end result of this would be a native British population that is treated as an uneducated rabble, lorded over by a profiteering elite and their "foreign investor" friends. Britain would be ruled like a third world country.
The "Brexit Agenda" is no more than the logical conclusion of wanting to turn Britain into the bargain basement of the developed world, where its assets are sold off to foreign buyers without a moment's thought for its effects on the population. Brexit Britain's ruling elite seem to relate their interests far more with the other rich elites of the world, such as the Middle East, China or Russia. It is these people who pay for their children to go to Britain's best universities, buy up luxury property as a way to hide their dodgy assets, spend their money shopping in London's high class stores, make use of Britain's tax havens, and so on. The Brexiteers relate to these people and their motivations far more than the "ordinary people" of Britain, who by contrast are as distant to their own lives as peasants are to landowners. The "little people" are of no consequence.
This explains why the Brexiteer elite are in hock with so many profiteering interest groups; because they think like they do, and only are interested in ways to make money for themselves. Lazily, they might assume that if they are making money then it must be good for everyone else lower down in the economic food chain too; all those who are worse off from this would then only have themselves to blame.
This is the morality of the sociopath, who has little understanding or empathy for the problems of others, and only assumes that other people's problems are brought on by themselves. As he sees it, his success was by his own actions alone, and any good fortune that came his way was nothing more than "karma".
Corruption and exploitation are the inevitable result of this mentality, and we can see this is the kind of economic model that Brexiteers seem to be championing.
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